In the processing of chickens, turkeys, and other types of birds through a poultry processing plant for defeathering, evisceration, cut-up and packaging for delivery to a retail grocery store, etc., it is desirable to perform as many of the processing steps as possible with automated machinery. It is important to minimize the manual handling of the birds so as to minimize the expense of processing, as well as to ensure uniform processing of the birds.
The general trend in poultry processing in recent years has been to suspend birds by their legs from an overhead conveyor system and perform as many of the processing steps as possible as the birds are being moved in series on the conveyor system from one processing station to the next. For example, the birds can be decapitated, opened and eviscerated while being progressively advanced along a single overhead conveyor system. However, at certain points in the conveyor system, it is desirable to transfer the birds from one conveyor line to another. For example, after the birds have been eviscerated, it is necessary to transfer the birds from the evisceration conveyor line to a cooling line where the birds are chilled within a cooling chamber for health considerations. The cooling line typically utilizes different types of shackles from those of the evisceration line due to size constraints in the cooling chamber, thus necessitating the need to transfer the birds from one conveyor line to another.
In the past, the transfer of birds from one conveyor line to another was manually performed by an operator removing the birds from the shackles of the evisceration line and placing the legs of the birds into the shackles of the cooling line. More recently, equipment has been developed for automating this transfer process. However, these machines are complicated and do not provide a simple and efficient means for transferring the birds.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved apparatus and method for automatically transferring birds from one overhead conveyor system to another overhead conveyor system.